With 40 million or so football experts, the post-mortem into Argentina's brutal elimination from the World Cup is thorough and at times deeply painful. Those four German goals went in like huge pins deflating a very big sky blue and white balloon.

To say that Argentinians are obsessed with their football is both a cliche and an understatement. A poll before the World Cup kicked off confirmed what anyone could have estimated – that 91% of Argentinians would follow their national team. With convincing group-stage victories over Nigeria, South Korea and Greece that figure only grew as the country covered itself in sky blue and white flags, ribbons, shirts and face-paint.

There are people here who are not remotely interested in football but they all probably hired a mini-bus and went walking in some remote corner of Patagonia.

It seemed that the only people working when Argentina played were the photographers sent out to snap empty streets. Every bar, shop, restaurant and newspaper kiosk had their televisions on. The Buenos Aires city government erected two huge screens that attracted thousands of fans for the Argentina matches and hundreds for the other games.

With kick-offs scheduled for 8.30am, 11am and 3.30pm local time, the education minister ruled that lessons could be suspended for the Argentina games and pupils could either go home or watch the matches on screens set up in the school hall. The ministry worked with the football authorities to produce a teaching aid booklet covering everything children needed to know, and much they did not, about the World Cup, Argentina's group rivals and South Africa.

There was no false hope here. A squad boasting Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano and more had to be a contender. But a team led by Diego Maradona also had to be prone to disaster.

Argentinians have a love-hate relationship with the man they hail as the best footballer to ever kick a ball. Most love the short, fat man who won them the 1986 World Cup almost single-handedly. But many at the same time are ashamed by Maradona, the drug-taking, emotionally unpredictable man.

He promised to run naked around the obelisk in the centre of Buenos Aires if Argentina won the cup. Imagine a similar promise from Fabio Capello or Joachim Löw.

The coach is spending a few days with his family to think about his future, while the country debates what form they think that future should take. At the very least, it helps them to keep their minds off of those four German goals.

Those who forgive him everything for the joy he brought them are begging him to stay on, including several of his players – Messi and Gonzalo Higuaín among them. Fifteen thousand fans welcomed the squad home on Sunday and it took the team bus an hour to drive the short distance from the airport to their headquarters. Just imagine what it would have been like if they had progressed beyond the quarter finals.

However, in a nation of pundits there are plenty who are well aware of Maradona's tactical failings. Several of his players, including Gabriel Heinze, Mascherano and Juan Sebastián Verón, have not expressed any kind of support for their manager.

There is a growing clamour to re-think and re-build. Possible successors are being quietly touted with Paraguay's Argentinian manager, Gerardo Martino, near the top of that list.

The debate continues to rage about Messi. The hopes of a nation rested on his shoulders. We had Messi advertising razors, Messi advertising fizzy drink, Messi advertising clothes. Messi was omnipresent, he was everywhere we looked, except where he should have been on the pitch.

He is still only 23 and the feeling is still that he will one day play as well for his national team as he does for Barcelona. One day. For most foreigners the first thing they think of, if they think of Argentina at all, is football, perhaps with a strain of tango and a prime cut of beef thrown in. So nearly as important as winning is the national team's image abroad.

And if there's any consolation, then it's that Diego's boys, unlike their great rivals Brazil, suffered defeat with dignity. So they did not lift the trophy but Diego did not embarrass them either, they played some great football and scored some spectacular goals.

Argentina is disappointed but not despondent. And at least we will not have to endure Maradona running naked through the streets of Buenos Aires.